We had a Perkins for only about 5 years, but it was built on the wrong side of town (last week they busted a meth lab in the old motel across the street). They tore it down and built a legit drug store.

It's called half-mast, but it really should be a little higher than that.

From what I can tell, flags in Wisconsin were ordered at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Tuesday, July 7, in honor of a 19-year-old army private killed in Iraq at the end of June. I don't see anything about today. Perhaps that Perkins just hasn't changed the flag back yet, or maybe there's some sort of additional link to the young man, Steven Drees of Peshtigo, who was killed?

Of course, maybe this wasn't even taken in Wisconsin, now that I think about it. So never mind, maybe.

I used to take tricks to that Perkins for breaky after I met them at the gay bar in Madison. Then we would go to my parents home in Waunakee when they weren't home.

I also had a dream last night that Maureen Dowd and I were in a convertible in Boston getting shot at my these gangsters. Althouse was in another car trying to shoot the gangsters. Althouse was able to gun them down but not before I got shot, but lived.

The gangsters shot my face and I was deformed. For some reason I had to relocate to a dorm in Madison and Althouse was my protector. I would get teased at the dorm because my face was deformed and Althouse would come to my defense. She would also help me get the key in my door and take out the garbage because I had a difficult seeing because the left half of my face was gone and I couldn't see.

The Perkins near me has a HUGE flag and I saw it flying at half mast today. So I called them and asked who died.

The woman who answered said, "No one. President Obama declared today National Peace Day, and we're observing the day this way."

Except, AFAIK, Obama DIDN'T declare today National Peace Day, not did anyone else. Googling for the term brings up a few stories about movements to declare a national peace day, and various national observances calendars don't have any such thing.

So is this a local imagining, or is the whole chain suffering this delusion?

OK, this is what happens when 1) one has a too-generous supply of anytime minutes on one's cell phone and 2) one is desperate to procrastinate finishing some work one resents having to do while on vacation:

I called that Perkins and asked. Indeed, the flag was at half-staff to honor that Wisconsin serviceman.

We should lower the flag for the common man, who never made a lot of money, whose name was never in the paper, who worked and was taxed and did not complain. The forgotten man, the man who paid for all his better's schemes, and is never thought of. 'He should not to be allowed to fall in his grave like an old dog.'

But he does, and attention is not paid; he passes quietly into history, no flag or fawning news coverage, just part of the backdrop of nameless people that come and go, another stop of the train, a drop of rain in a human downpour.

In the event of the death of a present or former official of the government of any State, territory, or possession of the United States or the death of a member of the Armed Forces from any State, territory, or possession who dies while serving on active duty, the Governor of that State, territory, or possession may proclaim that the National flag shall be flown at half-staff, and the same authority is provided to the Mayor of the District of Columbia with respect to present or former officials of the District of Columbia and members of the Armed Forces from the District of Columbia. When the Governor of a State, territory, or possession, or the Mayor of the District of Columbia, issues a proclamation under the preceding sentence that the National flag be flown at half-staff in that State, territory, or possession or in the District of Columbia because of the death of a member of the Armed Forces, the National flag flown at any Federal installation or facility in the area covered by that proclamation shall be flown at half-staff consistent with that proclamation.

Both the president and governors have the discretion to order flags to half staff.

In this case. Gov. Doyle signed the executive order (#287: you can look it up) specifically in honor of Pvt. Drees, whose funeral was on Tuesday. Doyle has done this previously for other of Wisconsin's fallen (as well as on other occasions).

The deceased by ambush Prvt.Steven Drees was another of the fixed targets now serving at Obama's insistance in the militarily useless Afghanistan mountains to keep the Moslem guerilla's there in training until we pull out.

The gubernator's office sends out half-staff announcements, and our college's PR office resends them to all employees, which makes sure that the people responsible for the flag at each location know about those instructions, and to announce to all of us why the flag is at half staff. It's always been military/NG deaths at war AFAIR.

Poger I fall off the turnip truck every so often but get myself back on.

Yes, Perkins was called Perkins Cake and Steak.

When I was young fagola I loved to collect "Mini Menus" from restaurants. I would take tons of them from restaurants-you know the ones by the cash register. Then when I was home I would pretend our dining room was the restaurant and put the mini menus out all around the dining room in twos, fours, eights to "connote" number of diners at the restaurant at any given night. I would then pretend I was the host and "seat" the dinners. I memorized all the menus. Perkins Cake and Steak was one that I must of had over 100 menus. Then I would pretend I was the waitress, take their order on an actual order pad that I purchased at a office supply store. Total up the order and then the diners would come to my little cash register where I would make change.

My waitress name was "Bee" and I actually found a dead bee and attached it to a business card and pretended that I put it on the centerpiece of the table so everyone knew I was "Bee". So if they needed anything they could just say "Bee".

I also had a thing for football stadiums. When I was young I knew the size of every college football stadium in the country and I would draw each stadium. I knew each capacity from Grambling and Alcorn State to Michigan and UCLA.

In the drawings I would actually put a 0 for every person the stadium would hold. For example, if Camp Randall in Madison had a capacity of 72,000 (at that time, it has a larger capacity now) I would actually draw 72,000 heads in the stands of the stadium.

I had a black three ring binder with each stadium in it, color coded by conference in which the teams played.

On Saturdays of game days I would take out my own designed stadium while I watched the game.

Pogo said... We should lower the flag for the common man, who never made a lot of money, whose name was never in the paper, who worked and was taxed and did not complain..

Then the flag would be lowered 365 days a year for the common man, and what would be the point.

One can argue the pandering is excessive when 19 out of 20 passers by in front of a flag at half-staff have no idea of who the thing got lowered for.

One can also argue that the practice of routinely putting the flag at half-staff for soldiers or state employees who die "line of duty" (cops, highway workers, etc.) - intended as consciousness-raising or showing how "empathetic" politicians are is excessive.Especially when those "symbolic privileges" extend from time of death to burial by terms of the "half-staffing" proclaimation.

And 30 days for a dead President was fine back in the day when farmers were making monthly trips back into town for supplies, news, mail...before radio existed or 28 other categories of "flag-dipping worthy celebrity existed". But excessive now.

2.4 million people die in America every year. Most who lived productive, worthy lives. "Half-staff" availability, assuming you want the Flag to fly "normally" at least half the time - is thus limited to a typical 2-week stretch for 13 people in state and Nation..

Soldiers? They get a collective honor on Memorial Day. Not just the KIA of past wars, but those who achieved great things, or paid and sacrificed in other ways by serving. Memorial Day is not really about honoring death and victimhood, but the collective accomplishments of the the troops and many civilians engaged in national defense activities in war and peace.

I figure if the forgotten man is going to be ignored while he lives, his labor and savings confiscated by the State, having been robbed of the liberty to choose how he spends his own money, delimited from new business ventures by regulatory kudzu, forced to learn all the wonderfulness of every culture except the one that brought forth this nation.....

...well, I figured maybe the forgotten man could be acknowledged as he joins the choir invisible. But people would probably bitch about even that, wouldn't they?

If I were Titus's dad, his 5:43 would have all but convinced me that he would grow up to be a flaming 'mo who spends his time talking about his loaves and rare clumbers. But his 5:55 would have given me the slightest hope that he would instead grow up to be married to a fat women's clothes store and be a NY Giants fan.

TitusHerNameWasLola said... I also had a thing for football stadiums. When I was young I knew the size of every college football stadium in the country and I would draw each stadium. I knew each capacity from Grambling and Alcorn State to Michigan and UCLA.

In the drawings I would actually put a 0 for every person the stadium would hold. For example, if Camp Randall in Madison had a capacity of 72,000 (at that time, it has a larger capacity now) I would actually draw 72,000 heads in the stands of the stadium.

I had a black three ring binder with each stadium in it, color coded by conference in which the teams played.

On Saturdays of game days I would take out my own designed stadium while I watched the game.

7/9/09 5:55 PM

Is that true Titus? Because if it is I am very impressed. What an obsessive and interesting thing to do. Do you still have those diagrams? They would be great framed and displayed. Too bad if you got rid of them. I am sorry if that is the case.

Yes, my football stadium fascination is true. And yes I created each stadium in it's likeness from what I could find in books and on the tv.

And yes, I have the three ring binder in my parents basement. I haven't looked at in a long time but I will next time when I go back to Wisconsin.

I didn't have any friends as a child (no tears) so I found other ways to consume my time.

On Sundays I would look at all the football scores from Saturday. At the end of all the stats they would usually put the attendance. I would record every attendance for each stadium and match it up against what the stadium held. I did this for 3-4 years. I put those stats in a red binder which is also in my parents home.

How could I make up something like a fascination with football stadiums.

Now there are websites that have many of the famous stadiums.

I was always perplexed when football stadiums that had double or triple deckers held a less attendance capability than stadiums that had no decks. For example Michigan which is just one huge circle around the stadium and Illinois which has a double decker.

Some of the largest capacity stadiums:

MichiganOhio StatePenn StateTennessee

All over 100,000 capacity-I think. Although I don't follow it much any more.

For some reason it was only college stadiums. Pro stadiums never excited me as much. Baseball stadiums didn't either. Maybe because pro stadiums seem to constantly change and for the most part college stadiums are very old and haven't been tore down but rather built more stands.

When I was very young Green Bay used to play 1/2 their games in Lambeau and 1/2 their games at County Stadium in Milwaukee. My dad had season tickets to the Milwaukee games. Hard to think today that Green Bay would do that considering the cities love with the Packers.

Titus, I would encourage you to treasure those pictures, get them next time you visit your mom, scan them all to safe guard them, and share some of them with us. I find your story very moving and these drawings sound facinating.

I am sorry you had no friends growing up. But you do have friends here (even if most of us don't share your...passions when it comes to other things). These football stadium drawings sound amazing and you should share them. I think it would be good for you. I would love to see them.

Titus, I loved that Dark Lady song when I was a kid. I sang and performed it incessantly. I even dressed up as a gypsy for Halloween one year, inspired by the song.

I also would put on my favorite blue clogs and sing Olivia Newton John standing on the footstool in the living room like it was my little stage, and the hairbrush was my mike. Please Mister Please, don't play B 17 it was our song it was his song but it's ooooooover.

I haven't been a regular reader of Althouse very long, and I only comment occasionally. However, I have to say that your comments about your youthful fascination with college football stadiums are among the most interesting things I've ever read here.

And that's not to knock everything else I've read here, either. Those were just really awesome.

The weird part is that I have no idea why. Maybe it was just my visualizations of everything? I don't know.